Gregório Gomes’ first experience as a hacker was in his adolescence, at 12 years old. In order to be able to spend more time in front of the computer, he had to circumvent parental rules, find passwords and change some settings. It was at this time that he realized how easy he was in the area, as he learned almost everything on his own. “I was always on the computer and consumed a lot of external information”, says Gomes.
At 16, he was already on some of the most important bug bounty platforms in the world trying to legally hack into the systems of large companies.
On a foreign platform alone, it handled more than 500 company calls and detected some major system problems, with rewards of up to $5,000.
Major Failure
In one of them, he discovered a flaw considered critical, in which the company’s system ended up cloning people’s credit cards, in a kind of chupacabra. In general, he says, loopholes are “systems legacies.” “Every website has a default build by a developer. If you don’t adjust and change the settings, it’s easy to explore the system.”
With the experience acquired as a “good hacker”, he provided services for companies such as Easy Taxi and Uber until he created his own startup.
In early 2017, he opened the Data Refinery, a company specializing in the collection and analysis of digital information.
With access and knowledge, he was able to navigate the so-called dark web and get information from this underworld to the business environment.
In April 2021, the company was sold to Modal, and Gomes became the institution’s Data Engineering manager.
Hobby
But the bounty hunter has not abandoned the origins. At 27, he is still subscribed to platforms and is still trying to break into other companies’ systems. “Today I do it as a hobby. In the past it was the way to earn money. Either do it for good or for bad.”
16-year-old Andres Alonso Bie Peres is a beast in the bug bounty. At 14, he earned $25,000 from Facebook for discovering a flaw in Instagram.
Like Gomes, Andres also learned everything practically on his own. At the age of 10, he took a course in graphic design. Curiosity drove him deeper into the internet. He discovered that he could make money by hacking into the business system and decided to study the subject.
With the money he earned from Facebook, he bought more equipment and used part of it to create a company that teaches the activity.
Launched in August, the company already has 500 students, who pay R$ 397 for an annual subscription. The current goal is to have 2,000 students in one year. In the meantime, he continues to hunt for rewards. Information is from the newspaper The State of São Paulo.
The post Success Profile is a self-taught post that started early and first appeared in ISTOÉ DINHEIRO.
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